BUILDING work has started on a new £1 million midwife-only birthing unit in a controversial maternity shake-up across Birmingham and the Black Country.

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust and Sandwell Primary Care Trust chiefs closed all maternity wards at Sandwell Hospital, in West Bromwich, in January.

It meant all births would have to take place at City Hospital, in Winson Green, five miles further away.

But Trust bosses were forced by health watchdogs to open a midwife-only unit in Sandwell to ensure straightforward births still go ahead in the borough.

Sue Davis, chair of the Trust, was there to watch builders start work on the site and revealed the centre would be called the Halcyon – meaning tranquil and calm – after a public vote.

“This is a really exciting day, if you visit the Serenity Birth Unit at City Hospital, you will get a feel for what this stand alone unit will be like,” said Mrs Davis.

“The plans for this new birth unit are wonderful and I hope generations of Sandwell women will give birth here.”